Deploying Windows Updates?

WinBreak asks: "Well, I guess I'd be an 'IT Administrator' - but I work for a public library. The job consists of baby sitting 20-odd computers. The problem is, as a public library, we don't have much bandwidth - a simple 768K DSL line shared among everyone. It's good enough, for our normal traffic, and when people want to come in and do research (as long as there aren't too many kids on YouTube!). The problem comes when we need to do reformats and installs on machines. Most of our CD's for these machines are XP with Service Pack 1 - though we have a couple with Service Pack 2. For the SP1 CD's, we immediately deploy the SP2 Redistributable. But that still leaves OVER 100MB worth of downloads from Windows Update to go get. Our budget isn't great in the IT department, so spending money is not a great option - but I could sling together a grant proposal if need be. So how do others manage deploying a new install of Windows? Are we really expected to still download 100+MB per reinstall? Is Service Pack 3 on the horizon?" "I've heard of programs that download updates to a server computer and distribute them through the network to clients, but that only worked for files released on Microsoft's Knowledge Base, if I recall correctly - not for all Windows Updates."

Comments

Re:What software do they use for researching?

[bergeron76]

Sure he could switch to Linux... And even with Linux, you still have to have a method to distribute and install patches to the OS and applications, so you haven't actually solved the root problem.

He wouldn't need a method to install patches/applications. His core applications would "just work" and he wouldn't have to worry about patching/upgrading every day. Using a Linux OS his core system would be fundamentally secure. He could apply updates if desired, but they wouldn't be mandatory to maintain a secure system.

Either I missed your point, or you just didn't make one.